Changes of Address: Poems 1980-1998

From its opening page ñ a refugee's first sight of England ñ Changes of Address presents a journey through our times, a search for the meaning of ëhome'. With its humour and deep honesty, its vivid storytelling, its sense of history and brilliant observations of the here and now, this book of poems is as rich and multi-layered as a novel.

It brings together for the first time the whole range of Philip Gross's poetry from the 1980s and 90s ñ a generous selection from his Bloodaxe, Faber and Peterloo collections along with uncollected poems and work from limited editions and collaborations. Changes of Address shows his development from the prize-winning Ice Factory to the Whitbread-shortlisted Wasting Game, but takes the reader also into previously unknown reaches of Philip Gross territory.

"A book of great clarity and concentration, continually themed but always lively and alert in its use of language. Gross takes us from Great Flood to subtly invoked concerns for our watery planet; this is a mature and determined book, dream-like in places, but dealing ultimately with real questions of human existence."Simon Armitage, T.S. Eliot Prize judges' comment on The Water Table.

"Great poetry is like walking on water. In this paradoxical, humane collection, Philip Gross achieves that miracle."Polly Clark, Guardian

"Philip Gross knows how to make silence and suggestion resonateÖ he touches an alien, intractable dimensionÖ Gross's poems are about lost bearings and blurred frontiers."Terry Eagleton, Independent on Sunday

"The harrowing and beautiful poems in which a father witnesses his daughter's near-fatal struggle with anorexiaÖ These are elegies for the living, piercing in their clarity and depth of feeling."Helen Dunmore on The Wasting Game

"Haunting, vividly imagined poems, whose fierce intelligence is gentled by the sonorous grace of the languageÖ A considerable poetic talent offers us an elegant and subtle re-evaluation of the modern world."Sarah Crown, The Guardian

"Some of the poems are marvellous, not because they are brave about their subject, not even because of the technique on display, but because they are electrifyingly well observed and beautifully written."David Morley, Poetry Review

"This marvellous collectionÖ The poems are destabilising but revelatory visions of the worldÖ The tensions between his close attention to qualities and the wit and bravura with which he interprets them is held by the scope of his linguistic resources and techniqueÖ I repeat: buy and view the world anew! ñ astonished!"Judy Gahagan, Ambit